East 5 St, East Village

East 5th is a very east side street. It's kind of gritty, very trendy and all of the restaurants and bars are tiny, and always packed with young people. It's not my cup of tea for all of the time. But, every now and then, I do enjoy the livelihood of this area.
East 5th and Cooper Sq has a number of affordable little establishments. There's a pub right on the corner called Scratchers. It's pretty gritty and definitely not well known outside of the neighborhood. Two buildings over is one one of the cheapest wine boutiques in the city. Of course, you can find the cheapest wine at Trader Joes and Astor Wines. But, if you live right over here and don't want to schlep from Alphabet to the East Village, this is the place to go. There's a really cute little oyster bar just across the street too. It's reasonably priced as far as oyster bars go.
Just across 2nd Ave is the second outpost of Mary Anne's Mexican Food. The original, on 8th Ave, was the first Mexican food I tried in NY. And, though I've been to nearly all of them now, this is still my favorite. It's the closest I've found on the east coast to Southern California Mexican. It's pretty amazing and really bad for you (read: way too much cheese and deliciousness). I'm glad they opened an East Village counterpart.
Directly across the street from Mary Anne's is the Police station that they use for pretty much all Police Drama exteriors for film and tv.
There's a co-op at First Ave that I can't stand. It's about 5 buildings that all look like tenements and you have to traverse the courtyard to get back to the east village at night. It scares the hell out of me. Why do all east village buildings have to look like Caprini Green? Are they wanting our very own horror film to come to life?
There are a lot of really cute, tiny bars and restaurants on 5th at Ave A. You can walk into any one of them and be quite content. During the summer, they all have sidewalk tables and the street is pretty jamming until well after midnight. The jamming is mostly coming from hipsters and college kids, though, so don' t say you weren't warned.
I wouldn't go past Ave B on 5th unless you live there. There's not much to do and it's a little scary still.